Beauty

[IControlMyHappiness]

I want to join, I have been attempting this for a while with "some" success. But not as much as I would like. Here is what I do to curb my QVC/HSN purchases:

1) Do all purchases as check orders. Wait and read the reviews and then if you still want the item in 1 1/2 weeks then switch to a credit card. Check orders are on hold for 2 weeks.

2) Do not charge anything immediately.

3) If the item is not "perfect" send it back, do not try and "make" the item work, if it does not fit well send it back.

4) Don't ship one item back if possible, wait and try and send back returns on a monthly basis. Include several items in one box.

[Cheezit]

Happy New year Ladies!!! Was interested in the TSV but it is not exactly what I am looking for so will not purchase!!! Woohoo!!! I too am going to return a couple tops I purchased last week! Woohoo

[rnmom]

I'm in ladies! Thanks for starting this thread, I'm looking forward to simplifying at least a little this year! I just get so tired of dealing with "stuff" all the time, moving stuff, cleaning stuff, storing stuff, putting stuff away. Sometimes I just feel like getting rid of 90% of my stuff and keeping the bare minimum. But my husband and kids would protest too much. So, baby steps over here. I haven't gotten anything done yet, but this weekend I want to put my Christmas decorations away and maybe I'll go thru and see if there's anything there that I don't want and can donate. Between work, kids, etc. I don't have a lot of time for major clean outs, but I figure every little bit helps. I'm another one that wants to work on clearing out the food storage that we have here too. I was stockpiling for a while when coupons were still doubled and I accummulated a lot of food, so much that I had to buy extra shelves in the basement. Well, now no more double coupons so I'm not getting free stuff anymore. And a lot of the food expired before we could eat it up or I could donate it. So now I'm going to try to be more mindful at the grocery store about making sure that I only get things that I know we'll eat, or donate it in a timely manner before it goes bad.

[AmyKnits2]

I just saw this thread and I am all in! Hubby retired last spring so our income is greatly reduced. We also bought a new camper at Thanksgiving (not real big but a big upgrade for us) and have 4 years of payments. We already went through our pantry and donated 4 bags to a local church food pantry this past week. I have a full freezer in the basement and lots of supplies in my pantry. I am a couponer (not extreme) and usually spend $75/week on groceries and am going to see if I can get it down to $50/week until I get my food stash greatly reduced. No big purchases planned in the near future so, barring any car issues or appliances dying, I should be able to be more thrifty in 2015! My final goal this year is to lose about 20 lbs. without dieting (I always fail) but by eating "mindfully". For me, this just means paying attention to eating very little processed food with ingredients I can't pronounce and eating smaller portions...more vegetables, fruit, whole grains and lean protein. I'm not into "exercise" as in gyms, but hope to walk on my pretty country road any days it's not raining or below freezing. I'm really looking forward to reading how all of you are doing as the year progresses!

[vicki is ok]

On 1/1/2015 AmyKnits2 said: My final goal this year is to lose about 20 lbs. without dieting (I always fail) but by eating "mindfully". For me, this just means paying attention to eating very little processed food with ingredients I can't pronounce and eating smaller portions...more vegetables, fruit, whole grains and lean protein. I'm not into "exercise" as in gyms, but hope to walk on my pretty country road any days it's not raining or below freezing. I'm really looking forward to reading how all of you are doing as the year progresses!

I know this is OT, but wanted to let you know over 5 years ago I was where you are today only I had 100 lbs. to lose!!! You are so right. Diets always fail because at some point you are going to eat the foods you have banished from your everyday eating.

Not going to lie and tell you I did it without some help, that being NS, but I only used it for one month to just get portion control and mindful eating in sync. After that I just kept doing the portion control, smart food choices and walking. I ended up losing 112 lbs. and have kept it off for the last 3 years. I went from a size 24 to a 4. I'm not bragging just letting you know that it is possible no matter how much weight you need to lose.

Welcome to the group and I know with each other we can get this spending thing under control

Vicki

[shoppinggirl59]

I Am In....great thread. Glad to know I am not alone in this journey. MINDFUL. Love just that one simple word. Going to be my mantra for 2015. I don't shop on the Q anymore but do a shop to much. Going to work at this process and take it one day at a time.Need help in all areas of my life.love these boards for all the useful information and sharing of thoughts. Keep it going ladies. Shopping girl 59

[nicker]

I am getting in line with all of you. I too have drawers & closets bursting with clothes. Just this morning, I was considering a watch being shown. I was wondering if I could make it fit my wrist. It was on easy pay, oh boy! More of a reason to buy. No matter how many watches I buy, I wear my old Timex. Do I need another watch? No!

Every time a new skin care is shown to erase all the lines and wrinkles, I bite. I use it until the next new named magic bottle comes along. So many things thrown out half full. What a waste. I think I have bought every line of skin care QVC sells. I see the hosts aging right along with me. If the serums & creams were wonder workers, they would all still be looking like 30 yr olds. I'm talking about the long time hosts.

I too must change my grocery habit of just throwing things in the cart. My husband checks prices, but not me. From now on, I will be making a list, and checking prices.

This thread is very motivating!

[Lyn08]

I know we need to do a little at a time, or we'll get overwhelmed. Then if we accomplish something we can feel good about it.

I plan to go through my cookbooks (I don't cook as much, and tend to use some of the same recipes). If there are one or two recipes in a cookbook that I like, I'll copy those to recipe cards, and put the cookbook in a donation box. My mother kept a recipe box and had maybe 2 cookbooks. She was the best cook! I certainly don't need 50+ cookbooks.

Then I plan to try on my clothes a little at a time, and decide what fits, looks good and I plan to keep and wear, and the rest will go to consignment (if worthy of being sold) or donated. I tried on a pair of pants this morning that are way too big for me, and those went in the donation pile. I'll do the same with each piece of clothing, plus my shoes.

[vicki is ok]

Well just to show you how bad my shopping is, Monday on the Q I ordered a MOP, yes a mop. I have a mop, don't need another one, but got caught up in the hype. Thankfully after joining this group I cancelled the mop. Still don't know why I would even think I needed to order a mop. Just don't understand at all why I ordered that of all things, lol.

Vicki

Meant to add I even took the QVC app off of my phone!!!

[2slow2]

Happy New Year Everyone!! I like the idea one of the posters had of writing down all non-essential purchases. I've been wanting to write down a budget so I'm going to write down what I spend each day. This way I'll see how much I'm spending on essentials, like gas, food, etc. and how much I'm wasting on things I don't need. Hopefully the "wasting" column will have a lot of zeros in it! A few things I've done to limit temptation is unsubscribe from e-mails from retailers, never bring catalogs or sale flyers into the house (they go directly into the recycling bin), and ask myself before a purchase: I've lived this long without this thing, do I really need to have it??? Many times I've thought I just "had to have" an item and then found that an hour later I forgot all about it, clearly it wasn't very important!! Good luck to us all!!